Connecting With Consumers

A new advertising technology entices people to interact with the wave of a hand or swipe of a foot.

February 23, 2006|By Chris Cobbs, Sentinel Staff Writer

Thanks to devices like TiVo and satellite radio, today's consumers are adept at avoiding conventional commercials.

But advertisers looking for other ways to get their message out can now try alternatives from a Lake Mary business that use interactive technology to engage people's hands and feet along with their eyeballs.

Monster Media, a 2-year-old company with a staff of about 20, lets advertisers connect with a mobile audience with two "new media" tools that invite or require touchy-feely intervention by consumers.

"We are reaching out to individuals on the go, not those in the home," said President John Payne, a former Orlando Magic executive. "People touch and engage with an ad at a game or movie. You can't edit us out."

The two elements of its business are the Turnstile AdSleeve, a clear plastic cylinder holding a print ad, and GroundFX, a computerized display system that reacts when a person moves a hand or foot in front of a projected image.

The more innovative of the two systems, GroundFX allows a passer-by watching a fast-food commercial on a giant floor mat to "feed" burgers to a hungry customer by simply stepping on the mat. As if by magic, burgers fly across the vinyl mat into an open mouth.

"We think of our approach as `advertainment,' " Chief Executive Officer Chris Beauchamp said. "People are engaged. They see the experience as fun and exciting. That's the pinnacle for an advertiser: engage the consumer."

Monster Media didn't invent either system but acquired the patent rights and licensing arrangements to use them in mass-transit stations, airports, malls, sports arenas and entertainment venues in the U.S. and other countries, including the United Kingdom and Brazil.

Monster Media, teaming with media companies in New York, Chicago and other cities, negotiates ad sales with city transit officials or representatives of venues where Turnstile AdSleeve or GroundFX will be installed.

Ad rates vary. For a 30-second spot on GroundFX in the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, a monthlong ad run at all events costs $1,500 to $2,000. A 30-second spot on GroundFX in the TD Waterhouse Centre for all events for a month is $2,000 to $5,000.

For an ad at all of the Chicago Transit Authority's downtown Loop locations, the AdSleeve rate is $55,000 a month -- much higher because of the huge number of people who move through those stations each day.

The company has deployed its products at more than 125 turnstile locations and more than 50 GroundFX locations, including several in Central Florida.

Sleeves were installed last fall on 330 turnstiles in Chicago's downtown Loop area. On a hectic Saturday, four company staffers picked up screwdrivers and bloodied their knuckles slipping the 20-inch-long cylinders over transit turnstiles and tightening bolts.

As many as 18 million CTA riders in a 60-day period use a hand or thigh to push a turnstile after at least glancing at the ad for a car-insurance firm inside the sleeve.

Thousands more Turnstile AdSleeves are to be installed later this year in the U.K. and Brazil. Monster Media is also negotiating with transit officials in other U.S. cities, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

GroundFX uses an overhead projector linked to a computer to beam advertising images down onto a plastic floor panel.

For example, a GroundFX display in the Orlando Science Center shows animated spiders scurrying across an 8-by-10-foot vinyl panel. When a person steps on the panel, the spiders run toward the viewer, drawing squeals or gasps.

The GroundFX in the Orlando arena contains 12 to 15 ads for fast food and other products; it runs in a continuous cycle, with each ad spot appearing for 30 seconds at a time. Each is displayed at least 40 times per event

GroundFX has been installed in several dozen other sports arenas, stadiums, arts centers, concert halls and movie theaters in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.